Finom is Phenomenal at Chicago’s Metro Theater

Word and Photos by Nate Bieneman

Before taking the stage at Chicago’s famous Metro theatre, headlining indie rock band Finom began their performance with a truly unexpected and entertaining left turn by screening a short film.

The roughly 3 minute mockumentary about a fictional sibling group called “The Oboe Brothers” and their journey to mount a musical comeback, starred Finom front-women, Macie Stewart and Sima Cunningham.

Donning fake beards and aviator sunglasses, the pair were joined by Mary Williamson, a Chicago based artist who also directed the short. Williamson played the troubled third brother and genius songwriter who, according to the film, could write brilliant hooks but has never finished a song.

In an act of truly commendable dedication to the bit, Finom took to the stage in-character and played a handful of short snippets with their co-star Williamson and drummer Spencer Tweedy (who committed to the role by donning a long blonde wig). Williamson pulled out an Oboe, joked that she hadn’t played the thing in decades, and proceeded to perform a rendition of the first 10 notes of “Funkytown.”

After concluding their elaborate introduction, Stewart and Cunningham returned to the stage out of costume, joined by drummer Spencer Tweedy and Bassist Vivian McConnell, who performs under the name V.V. Lightbody.

For Finom, this show was particularly special, as it commemorated the release of their 4th LP, titled Not God.

The four piece ensemble began the set with ‘As You Are’, a tense, melancholic ballad that begins with a quiet, sentimental verse and builds to a huge chorus accompanied by guitar chords which rise and descend but never resolve the tension which builds throughout the piece. In the final two minutes of the song that tension persists. Stewart played violin while Cunningham picked up more of the vocal work. Tweedy and Lightbody supported the performance by providing a steady rhythm section.

In ‘Haircut’, their second song of the night, Finom put on display the great range of feeling which their vocal talents are capable of evoking. In a complete reversal of the tension and sadness of ‘As You Are’, ‘Haircut’ is a fun, upbeat pop song which revels in the mundane stresses of common life. It’s a song about not being available to hang out because you need time to get a haircut and pick up some food. “Passing through a bit too late/ For the day to be here to go get to my/ Dads to get some food and stuff/To do that day.”

The vocal stylings on this song are fantastic. The twin harmonies produced by Stewart and Cunningham interplay on this track in such a wonderfully weird way. Most interesting is the repetitive hook which rises to a high pitch and descends steadily, “Yeah I’m sorry but I'm not gonna wanna it's the time of day I can get my haircut.”

In each and every song, it was the complex and unexpected harmonies that sold me on Finom and kept me riveted. Another particularly great example of this came later in the show, during the song ‘Cyclops’. Here, Stewart and Cunningham combine a flamboyant and theatrical vocal performance with an understated instrumental style. The lead guitar part consisted of tightly packaged groupings of three notes at a time. The rhythm section provided the necessary energy to drive the upbeat song forward without distracting from the exceptional vocal performances. What worked so well about this song was the contrasting expressions of restraint and extravagance.

The vocal performances were sometimes infused with a sense of humor. Before performing their 2023 track, ‘fingerprints’, Macie Stewart asked the crowd, “Do you guys ‘ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah?’”.

I didn’t know what that meant until about 1 minute into the song, then they sang the “ah” bit. For this trick, Stewart and Cunningham trade “ah”s in rapid succession in a call and response manner. There was something almost physical about the way they traded “ah”s like a rapid game of ping pong. And then, for the last refrain of the song, Finom pointed at the audience, directing them to do the “ah”(x8) bit. The crowd loved it, they knew all the words to the song, and they knew when to say “ah”.

One of the great surprises of the night came at the end of the show, when Finom brought out their special guest, Jeff Tweedy, a Chicago music legend, producer of Not God, and father to Finom drummer Spencer Tweedy. They played a double-time version of Wilco’s Kicking Television then finished the show with their new album’s title track, “Not God”. Stewart played violin. The last song of the night was “Hungry”. By the last chorus, the excitement in the venue had reached a fever pitch. Macie Stewart and Sima Cunningham wailed intense frantic notes on their guitars in the explosive last moments of the song.